Computer Down!
On Friday my main home computer died. Power supply gave up the ghost, and in turn fried my graphics card. I spent most of the weekend looking at ways to fix the machine. I really didn't want to buy a new one, contrary to popular opinion. Just such a pain to deal with, expensive and ultimately not needed right now.
But graphics cards these days are made for PCIe x16, and my old machine needs AGP. So anything I buy may or may not work (more than my graphics card may have been damaged) and so I don't want to put $150 into my dead computer. I would rather put that money towards a new one that is certain to work and ready for another 4 years of service.
So with the help of my brother we configured a new machine online and it should be made/shipped in a week or two. It will be nice and new, use Vista Home Premium (for my media center needs).
Have you seen the new cases available? They are really rediculous. There wasn't a nice clean sexy looking one in the bunch. My new case will look like a cross between a kids version of a space ship, a transformer, and the dashboard of a sports car. It has a window so you can see inside. Why oh why do you need that? you can even spend $12 to get neon lights inside your case. Again why? Here is my new case.
At any rate, I didn't go for neon. I do have a window and some sort of thermal guage / odometer or two or three on the front. The good news is I have a LOT of room to grow and it was much less than I expected.
OH, and it came with 600watt speakers. yes 600 watt. Why? I would have declined (I already have nice speakers) but they only cost $5. For $5 I am interested to see why 600 watt computer speakers look/sound like.
So, if I promised to get stuff done for you this weekend, I am sorry. I got nothing done. Nothing.
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The reason my old computer died was that it was under powered. I had added a new graphics card, etc to it, but hadn't added a better power supply. I tried adding a new power supply but HP made it impossible to get any new one to fit. It lasted 4 years. When I finally looked at what I had in there I was amazed to see it was only 150 watts! Any new graphics card alone recommends at least 350 watt power supply. So, really it was my fault for not drilling holes and attaching a power supply to the outside. I did finally do that to try to get it living again, but alas it had caused too much damage by that point.